Karma: Are you Guilty?

There are many times lately that I’ve seen someone attempt to mask malice by using words like karma. I’ve seen posts on Facebook or Twitter or just in every day conversation and someone says “Karma makes everything happen as it should.” At first blush, it sounds nice, right? But, don’t fool yourself. It’s not pretty. It’s ugly.

Think about it…

Posting about Karma

Any time you take pleasure in someone else’s pain or hardship, that is malice.

Pure and simple.

You can smirk and say

“Karma’s a bitch.”

or

“Be patient. Karma has a way of working things out.”

But don’t fool yourself into thinking that’s the statement of someone that is taking the high road. That is someone reveling in someone else’s struggle

Perhaps you’ve been hurt at the hands of this person. Perhaps you have history that you feel justifies your attitude. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re acting with good intentions. Own your feelings and your response.

You are happy that someone else is hurting. Period.

After admitting that to yourself do you feel badly? Does it make you look more closely at your own actions, your own contribution to the history with the other person?

If not, that’s sad.

Is Karma Real?

Yes, it’s much nicer to believe that there is some power balancing things out. That if you act good you will be rewarded, that if you inflict harm it will come back to you two fold. That life is fair somehow.

And yet, a good friend of mine died a few months ago -a sweet woman that never said a mean thing about anyone, that always had a smile, that was genuinely interested in my kids and their well being. Did she deserve to have aggressive breast cancer that came back with a vengeance and took her life before her newborn granddaughter ever had a chance to know her? I don’t believe so.

Was that her karma? Not based on any behavior I’ve ever seen.

Was that her 3 month old granddaughter’s karma to be denied her grandmother? How could it be?

Is it any child’s karma to be brutally murdered or burned beyond recognition? Of course not. What child has possibly done such evil to deserve that?

Yet, every time you or someone else throws a statement around about Karma balancing things out, or karma giving someone what they deserve, we are saying these people deserved what happened to them. These children deserved to be terrorized and disfigured, that they earned these tragedies somehow.

I’m not ok with blaming the victims. Are you?

I’d love it if we started calling people on these barely veiled statements of malice. That we stopped tolerating this enjoyment of another’s pain.

What about you? Will this post change your view of those karma posts next time?

Oh, I do too Lori! Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think it’s human to wish someone would get their “due” somehow, but it’s the holier than thou – ness that bugs me. Own it! Don’t hide behind pretty words, own your feelings and be honest with yourself and others.

Being human is, well, human. It’s the hypocrisy and “I’m a kind person, that’s why I’m not being mean I’m just relying on karma.” attitude that gets under my skin.

I don’t rejoice over someone else’s pain even though that person may have cause others a lot of pain. But I do know if you are living in such a way that is reckless, and the hand writing is on the wall basically letting you know if you don’t change your ways you are headed to disaster! Then you created your own KARMA!! Walk right into it with your eyes wide open. Basically reaping what you sow! ! And that is a part of life!!!!!

I don’t believe in Karma. Bad things aren’t going to happen to someone because someone else says Karma’s a bitch. Bad things happen because without bad things you could not truly appreciate goodness. Bad things are a part of life. Most people if not all have experienced some sort of bad things. You cannot have good without bad, happiness without sadness, love without hate. It’s called life. Without all the bad we would never experience the good things in life, and that includes death. Without death we would not have the love for life that most of us feel. I have known people that have lived their whole lives being hateful to others with no repercussions and I’ve known people that have had bad things happen for no reason at all. My best friend was 11 years old when he was molested and killed. I was 10. So no, I don’t believe in karma, I believe in life. The good with the bad. Because of that I truly embrace the good when it happens =D

I absolutely believe this Fee! I would not appreciate the good without experiencing some struggles. It helps us all appreciate life that much more. I am so sorry about you and your friend. What an awful experience and one that is shared by too many…some very close to me.

I love your attitude and love how you’ve expressed this life view. Thank you so much for sharing it!

I know that I am guilty of saying it or thinking it and not actually believing it but trying to make myself feel better in some stupid way. But you are very right. If Karma really was true, doesn’t explain the unexplainable.

“You are happy that someone else is hurting. Period.” This is so very true and even though I am guilty of it once in awhile, all it takes is to watch it happen when you aren’t involved to realize that is what you are doing when you say that karma is going to get someone. I try to remember that you can’t change things but you can change the way you react to things.

I like Fee’s comment. I agree with this completely. “Bad things happen because without bad things you could not truly appreciate goodness. Bad things are a part of life.” I don’t get why some good people have more than their share of bad things, it is just so off-kilter for some.

It does make me feel better at times. I’ve been guilty of this too. I WANT there to be fairness, that some cosmic force is going to reward people for doing the right thing and punish people for doing the wrong thing. I’ve just seen too many great people have horrible things happen to them that it started to rub me the wrong way. It’s a pet peeve I know, just felt like venting I suppose.